Having duplicate copies of your most important information saved in a remote location keeps it safe in case anything goes badly wrong with your computer.
When you think about it there are a number of ways files can be lost unexpectedly…
Computer crashes – always happen when you least need it, and can lead to data loss.
Virus Infection – aggressive malicious viruses can corrupt files and disable computers.
Hard drive failure - hard drives have a finite lifetime and can fail suddenly and without warning. The sudden death of a hard drive can cause the painful loss of months or years of irreplaceable files and the timing can be catastrophic – if this happens close to a work or college deadline it could be a nightmare scenario.
Physical computer damage – your files are more at risk if you use a laptop. Light and portable comes at the price of reduced durability. Laptops are sensitive and are easily damaged if dropped or have drinks spilled over them.
Theft – computers are sought after by thieves and cannot always be kept secure whilst travelling.
The bottom line is that if you value what’s kept on your computer, it’s wise to take steps to protect your information from sudden loss. Work can be redone, but the loss of cherished files like family and travel photos is permanent.
Many users regularly back up their files to their computer hard drive, but in the event of a total computer breakdown this will not protect the information. Saving data to a separate location makes far more sense, and can be easily done if you have an external hard drive, or a large-capacity pen drive to back up onto.
However this method is only as secure as the device you’re backing up to. When saving your files on physical devices, your backup device needs to be kept in a different location than your computer, and can in turn fall victim to damage or loss. In addition, despite your best intentions, you may forget to copy your files as often as you should, leaving a large amount of recent work unprotected.
A safer and more effective method of securing files is online backup. Files stored online are safe from damage your computer, and if something goes wrong with your machine you will still have remote access to your information from any computer with internet access. This means files can be quickly and easily restored to your computer from a secure online server.
BullGuard Internet Security includes 5 GB of online backup and can be set to run automatic backups every day, leaving you to go about your day-to-day life safe in the knowledge that the latest versions of your files are safe and easily retrieved.
How a virus works
What is a firewall?
What is a worm?
What is a rootkit?
What is a keylogger?
What is ransomware?
What is spam?
What is a Trojan horse?